Healthy eating made simple; We all want a healthy lifestyle, but meal prepping, dieting, and exercising can feel overwhelming. Where do you start? What foods should you eat? Well, I have the secret to healthy eating made simple. Did you know how you consume your meals is just as important, if not more important, than the foods you eat?
Stress plays a significant component in how your body’s digestive system works. Not to get too technical, but your Central Nervous System triggers the stress response. An area of the Central Nervous System, called the Autonomic Nervous System, affects your digestive system. So, when you become stressed, your heart rate and blood pressure increase, cortisol is released into the body, blood flows away from digestion, and so the digestive system shuts down. This also decreases the absorption of nutrients into the body, can increase salt retention (Bloating), and reduces the body’s ability to burn calories.
Your body can’t differentiate what is life-threatening stress, such as running from a wolf, versus you scarfing down a sandwich during a virtual meeting. The secret to healthy eating made simple is how you eat your meals will directly affect how your body digests the food you eat, regardless of what you eat! You can shift your eating habits to set your body up for ideal digestion and nutrient absorption! Here are six secrets to making healthy eating simple without giving up the food you love!
1. Your Hunger Scale
Let’s start at the beginning. Have you ever finished eating a meal, and you feel like you have a lump of cement sitting in your stomach? That’s most likely because you ate more than what was necessary to fuel your body! When you overeat, you feel weighed down, uncomfortable, tired, and with less energy than before, which is the opposite of what you’re aiming for. Eating until you’re full, or too full, may be a result of deprivation or dieting. When you finally give in to those foods you miss, you’re overdoing it because you don’t know when you’ll allow yourself that pleasure again. It can also come from emotionally eating (say, from boredom) versus listening to the physical signals of hunger your body is giving you.
Some of the physical sensations of being hungry may be a feeling of weakness, an emptiness in the stomach, or even light-headedness. These symptoms are your body’s way of telling you it needs food for nutrition and fuel. Healthy eating made simple secret number one, listen to your body and identify where you are on the hunger scale. The hungrier you are, the more likely you are to overeat, so try to pay attention to the signals and prepare to eat before you are into starvation mode. Once you determine it is time for a meal, you want to eat to fuel your body. Ideally, you want to eat until you’re satisfied and about 80% full, not stuffed. Now, you may be thinking, how do I know when I’m 80% full? Keep reading to find out!
2. Your 20-Minute Meal
Slowing down your meals will resolve digestive issues, increase weight loss, and help you gain energy without changing anything you eat.
Have you ever timed how long it takes you to eat a meal? Not sitting at a restaurant chatting with friends, but the actual time to consume the meal itself. I challenge you to see how quickly you finish your next sandwich! You may be surprised at how quickly you eat. As I mentioned, when you eat too fast, your body thinks you’re in physical danger and activates a stress response. This releases cortisol and shuts down your digestive system.
You may also tend to overeat before you realize you’ve had enough! Secret number two to healthy eating made simple is to slow down the speed of your meal!! It’s really that easy! When you slow down your food intake, your body relaxes, which turns your digestive system on and helps you better absorb the nutrients in the food you eat. You will automatically eat less when you slow down and may find you don’t need to eat everything on your plate!
It takes 20 minutes from the time you start eating for your stomach to signal your brain that you’re full and you’ve had enough. Feeling full will result in eating less! By eating too quickly, you’re not giving your system enough time to communicate the sensation of fullness, leading to overeating. Slowing down the speed at which you eat will allow your stomach enough time to signal your brain that you’re satisfied, assisting with healthy eating made simple secret number one; eating until you are only 80% full and not over-stuffed. This is one technique I use EVERY SINGLE TIME I eat! So, spending 20 minutes to eat your food may seem like a long time, but you don’t have to go straight to utilizing the entire 20 minutes. You can gradually start to increase your mealtime. Here are a few simple steps to get there!
- Time your next meal, eating how you usually would. Don’t change a thing. Write down how long it took you to finish and how you feel when you’re done.
- This is just a way to gauge how quickly you eat and if you’re giving your body enough time to digest and send the “full” signal to your brain.
- The next time you sit to eat, purposefully increase the time it takes you to eat by 5 minutes.
- Take note of how you feel after the meal. Start to notice if you begin to feel full before you clean your plate.
- Increase your mealtime by 5 minutes during each meal until you reach 20 minutes.
- Continue to listen to the signals your body is giving you. Are you eating to 80% satisfaction versus overeating and feeling stuffed?
The bottom line is that eating slower allows your body to perform in the best state of digestion and puts you in a more mindful position to listen to the signals of satisfied versus stuffed. Some of you may think this sounds too simple, but others may think, how do I spend 20 minutes eating my salad?? Keep scrolling to learn a few more ways of healthy eating made simple!
3. Rest Between Bites!!
This next secret to healthy eating made simple may seem like a no-brainer, but nowadays, most people are eating on the go or quickly shoveling food in their mouth between meetings. When you feel rushed, you may be eating so fast you never even put down your utensil! And you probably don’t even realize it until you’ve finished. Putting down your fork or sandwich more often during your meal is another technique to help you slow down the speed of your meal. Tomorrow, during your lunch, try putting down your utensil at least three times while eating and see if you eat less and feel lighter.
4. Don’t Swallow Your Food Whole!
Chewing is a natural reflex that you do without much thought behind it. Did you know the digestive process actually begins in your mouth? Chewing starts the secretion of the hormone saliva and activates your taste buds. As you chew, your food combines with saliva, which contains digestive enzymes. These enzymes trigger the initial phase of the digestive process by sending signals to your body to start preparing your organs, such as the stomach and pancreas, for digestion.
The more you chew your food, the easier it is for your body to absorb the nutrients. Chewing more thoroughly will also slow down the speed at which you eat your meal, allowing you to gauge where you are on the hunger scale and aiding with not overeating! The recommendation is to chew your food 30 times! I know that seems a little crazy, but during your next meal, be mindful of thoroughly chewing each bite and see how you feel when you’re finished!
5. Breathe!
Another secret to healthy eating made simple is breathing!! Yes, That’s right, breathing!! Oxygen is a key player in speeding up your metabolism. It’s often overlooked since most people focus on the actual foods consumed instead of the process of eating. Think about it this way, to get a campfire going strong, you need to add oxygen to the fire. You may find yourself blowing on the small sparks to get the flames blazing. Well, your body does the same thing! Simply breathing in between bites can get your metabolic fire burning more calories and better absorbing the nutrients you eat.
Think about how important proper breathing during a workout is. That’s because your body uses oxygen intake to burn fat. If you “inhale” your food and don’t consciously breathe between bites, it will actually decrease your nutrient absorption and slow down your metabolism. Try taking a few deep breaths between bites to kick-start your metabolism during your next meal.
6. The Last Bite!
I don’t know about you, but there were plenty of times when I knew I was full, but I kept picking at my plate because the food was just so good and was still sitting in front of me! Using all the simple techniques you’ve learned throughout this article can help you to recognize when you feel you’ve reached your level of satisfaction without being stuffed. Once you’ve identified you feel full, finalize your meal. You can do this by pushing your plate into the center of the table or placing your napkin over it. If you’re at a restaurant, let the waiter take it away or wrap it up for you. Even just declaring out loud that you‘ve finished eating will hold you accountable for not overdoing it! Once the food is out of site, you won’t be tempted to continue munching on it, and you’ll allow your system proper digestion and time to communicate that you’ve had enough.
So, there you have it. Six secrets you can start using today for healthy eating made simple without eliminating the foods you love. I know it may sound too easy, and it may take some time to embed these habits into your life, but I promise you, that you’ll start to feel lighter, just by listening to your body!
If you’re feeling motivated to change what you eat, download the handout below, which provides suggestions for healthier food choices. If you’re looking to try some new dishes, my favorite magazines for healthy recipes are Eating Well and Cooking Light.
As a health and life coach, I’m here to support you if you’re interested in scheduling a session to learn more about how I can help you stay accountable on your health journey. I’d love to hear your thoughts or success stories using these healthy eating habit changes. So, please leave your comments below!
Check out my YouTube video for healthy tips on how to compare the nutrition facts of pasta.
